1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for securing security for a proximity service using a beacon signal transmitted by a beacon.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Apple's iBeacon and PayPal's Beacon are technologies for providing a proximity location-based service based on Bluetooth 4.0 (Bluetooth Smart).
In beacon technology, information is automatically transmitted to a device. The beacon technology advantageously has a wider data transmission range than near field communication (NFC) which belongs to the same field of technology as the beacon technology.
While NFC requires contact in practice because it can only be used with a range of about 4 centimeters, a beacon can be used within a range of as much as 50 meters.
In addition, in order to use NFC, a dedicated chip needs to be embedded in a device. However, because a beacon uses Bluetooth, there is an advantage in that compatibility with a general smartphone is excellent.
That is, when this beacon technology is used, the user may use a proximity location-based service (advertisement, payment, or the like) without a separate action of touching a smartphone or a beacon reception device to a recognizer.
However, there is a problem in that security is vulnerable because information about a proximity universally unique identifier (UUID), a major number, and a minor number transmitted by a beacon according to the conventional technology may be easily hijacked by a malicious user.
That is, there is a problem in that a smooth location-based service may not be provided to a proper user when a beacon signal hijacked and duplicated by the malicious user is retransmitted in an arbitrary place that was not considered at the time of setting the location-based service.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a beacon service system according to conventional technology.
The beacon service system according to the conventional technology is constituted of a beacon 10 configured to transmit a beacon signal, a beacon receiver 20 configured to receive the beacon signal transmitted from the beacon, and a server 30 configured to provide a proximity-based service. In some cases, the proximity-based service provided by the server 30 may be included in the beacon receiver 20.
The beacon 10 transmits a proximity UUID, a major number, and a minor number so as to indicate a region in which the beacon 10 is located or indicate a service.
The beacon receiver 20 executes the proximity-based service when a beacon signal suitable for a condition is detected by monitoring the beacon signal. This beacon receiver 20 may detect the beacon 10 using only the proximity UUID or detect the beacon 10 when all of the proximity UUID, the major number, and the minor number satisfy the condition.
The beacon receiver 20 monitors the beacon signal transmitted by the beacon 10. When the beacon receiver 20 registers a proximity UUID “1” as a region 1, the beacon receiver 20 receives the location-based service when the beacon receiver 20 enters the region 1. At this time, the major number and the minor number are used as IDs for providing additional location information.
For example, the beacon receiver 20 sets a region as in “CLBeaconRegion*region=[[CLBeaconRegion alloc] initWithProximityUUID:[[NSUUID alloc] initWithUUIDString:@“2F234454-CF6D-4A0E-ADF2-F4911BA9FFA6”]major: 1 minor: 1 identifier: @“region1”];.”
When a region is set using only a specific proximity UUID, the beacon receiver 20 monitors the beacon 10 using the proximity UUID regardless of the major number and the minor number.
The beacon service system according to the conventional technology directly exposes and transmits the proximity UUID, the major number, and the minor number of fixed values so as to provide a convenient proximity-based service for a large number of unspecified users according to service characteristics.
Cases in which this information is easily hijacked and duplicated by a malicious user and a beacon signal is retransmitted at a wrong position occur.
That is, the beacon service system according to the conventional technology has a problem in that a proximity-based service is not smoothly provided because security is vulnerable and a utilization range of the beacon is not extended.